Russian Ruble Plummets Against BTC As Oil Sanctions Loom

Russia’s ruble plummeted over 26 percent to a record low against Bitcoin at the start of the week, extending losses as the United States mentioned it was considering sanctions on Moscow’s oil exports. One Bitcoin is now worth around 5.2 million ruble, at the time of reporting. The currency has declined more than sixty percent against BTC in the past month.

Limitations on Russian oil will be the latest sanctions by the west over the nation’s invasion of Ukraine. In the month of February, the United States and its allies had blocked a couple of Russian banks from the SWIFT payments network. The US also froze Russia’s overseas assets, depriving the country of its foreign exchange sources.

The aforementioned move to block oil will further this trend, and is anticipated to put more pressure on the Russian economy. As per the data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, oil makes up over fifty percent of Russia’s total exports. The Russian Central Bank has acted promptly to safeguard the economy, more than doubling interest rates to twenty percent. However, it mentioned that the economic situation remained appalling.

Digital asset trading volumes had increased sharply in Russia over the past 2 weeks of February, specifically after the United States sanctions, according to data from data provider Kaiko. This fueled some supposition that Russians were moving into virtual currencies to safeguard their wealth, especially given the rising popularity of stablecoin USDT.